The European Union and the United States agreed on Sunday to a broad-brush trade deal that sets a 15 percent tariff on most goods, including cars, President Trump announced, at least temporarily bringing an end to months of tense negotiations with a bloc that is the United States’ single biggest source of imports.
Under the agreement, the European Union will invest heavily in American energy, while also buying American military equipment, Mr. Trump said.
The agreement will “rebalance, but enable trade on both sides,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said as she sat next to Mr. Trump as the leaders made the announcement.
“We made it,” Mr. Trump said.
Though the agreement appears to be a preliminary one that leaves many questions to be resolved, it could bring a measure of calm to one of the world’s most important economic relationships and allay fears of an escalating trade war. The European Union last year accounted for nearly $610 billion of the $3.3 trillion in goods imported by the United States.
The tariff rate is higher than the
10 percent tax that Europeans had been angling for, and that Mr. Trump applied to British goods. But 15 percent mirrors the main tariff rate of the U.S.-Japanese trade agreement that was announced last Tuesday, and is lower than the 19 and 20 percent rates imposed on several Southeast Asian countries.
The deal followed weeks of unpredictable talks. A month ago, the Europeans believed they were close to a deal, only to have Mr. Trump
send them a letter on July 11 threatening a rate of 30 percent unless an agreement was reached by Aug. 1.
Even after that announcement, Ms. von Der Leyen stressed the importance of continuing talks and trying to reach a negotiated deal. But the European Union also continued working to put the finishing touches on a plan to retaliate against Mr. Trump’s tariffs, one that could be enacted quickly if needed.
They finalized that
raft of potential countermeasures last week.
The goal was to create leverage. And, if talks broke down, some of the 27 E.U. member states thought that having a plan to hit back was essential.
Bringing down the tariff on European auto exports was a sticking point for the Europeans, especially Germany, the largest E.U. economy. European automakers, which sent cars worth 38.5 billion euros ($45 billion) to the United States last year,
have been suffering under the 27.5 percent tariffs imposed by Mr. Trump in April.
Pharmaceutical tariffs were another major issue in negotiations. The Trump administration threatened last month that it could raise tariffs on pharmaceuticals —
Europe’s largest export to the United States — to 200 percent. Such a high tax would have been crushing for the industry. The governments did not immediately clarify what would happen to tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Trump said on Sunday, ahead of his meeting with Ms. von der Leyen, that pharmaceuticals “are very special” and need to be made in the United States, even as he acknowledged that the United States would probably still import “a lot” of medicines from Europe.
